Guy Andrews - Annum

Label: Fina

Guy Andrews. Drums. If these two terms aren’t yet synonymous in your head, they soon will be. On a pair of impressive releases for Hemlock and Hotflush Andrews showed an ability to forge innovatively structured tracks which had a wealth of ambient detail backing up his big, powerful drum patterns. It wasn’t just the force of his beats, but rather the organic quality to the percussive textures which made Andrews’ early releases stand out from the crowd. While Andrews’ few releases have yet to catapult him into the spotlight, he draws ever closer with this release on the Fina imprint, for the first time drawing a wealth of emotive melody into his expanding sound palette.

Opener Divide is a strong mission statement for this more mature sound. Tropically-flavoured melodics open up to a growling bass riff and, at the two-minute mark, the welcome return of those formidable drums. Punctuated by sharp claps and clipped synth notes, the pleasant surprise of a sweeping string section proves Andrews’ newfound melodic direction a welcome change. 7AM is cut from much the same cloth; a stretched bass groove introducing the 4/4. Yet Andrews knows better than to repeat material; the rich synthwork that dominates the track’s second half is both epic and involving, building to a hard-earned climax as impressive through headphones as it would surely be on the dancefloor.

Leading the B-side, Fixture is a tougher beast. Compressed kicks give on to a gritty locked groove, a shifting array of percussive accents keeping the tension building throughout. The incorporation of more retro-flavoured synths seems to hint at a brighter conclusion, but Fixture quickly drops back into darker territory, the second drop leading into an accomplished techno roller not unlike a cleaned-up version of the Sheworks sound. With closer Tapes Andrews shifts the formula once more, offering a moody house number peppered with claps and vocal snips, a sophisticated arrangement whose searing synths emerge and recede as the track draws to its rugged close.

It’s fitting that Andrews should end the EP on a high-point, but Annum is an enviable accomplishment from the first note to the last. After a year out one might expect something special and here it is; a complex and varied EP that pushes Andrews ever closer to the recognition he so clearly deserves.

7.5/10